A few days ago, I saw this post from a friend on facebook:
Hi Miriam,
I’m so sorry to hear that your mom was taken away from you so young. I’m sure that must hurt a lot. I didn’t go through that, but 4 of my relatives were shot to death, and I’ve had some die from diseases, most recently one of my favorite aunts from pancreatic cancer and like most all other humans have suffered various other trials.
But the Bible is very clear that God’s enemy did this in places like Job where he kills Jobs children and causes other mayhem. He is the enemy and cause of all evil and so are his agents, supernatural and human.
The reason your mother has not visited from the other side, is because she died. Death means the complete cessation of life, So she will never come back to you, nor will anyone else, except in dreams, etc. This is a very important biblical doctrine…life saving in fact. And below is a little of why.
The Bible teaches that when people die (Eccl. 9:5-6), all consciousness ceases and their bodies go back to dust (Ecclesiastes 12:7). God’s people will be resurrected back to life only at Jesus’ 2nd coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17…although there were a couple cases of resurrection before that such as at Jesus’ death and resurrection as Matt. 27:50-53 record, but this only confirms the reality that those people were dead all the time and not in heaven. The wicked will be resurrected 1000 years after Jesus’ 2nd coming. die and from which there is no resurrection (Revelation 2:11; 21:8).
BIBLE: Are the Dead Really Dead?
https://www.amazingfacts.org/media-library/study-guide/e/4987/t/are-the-dead-really-dead-
VIDEO (short): What Happens After You Die?
https://www.truthaboutdeath.com/free-resources/video-library/id/1790/t/what-happens-after-you-die-
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
This matters a lot for several reasons. Four reasons are:
1) Demonic spirits have told satanists that they love to impersonate the dead and then lead them into deceptions and away from God. Roger Morneau in his book “A Trip into the Supernatural” is one of many who have had experiences with spirits impersonating dead people. So some people will lose out on heaven because of false doctrines about what happens when you die.
2) Throughout history, when kings and powerful people died, they often killed their servants so that the servants could continue serving in the afterlife. So this deception killed many innocent people.
In the documentary, “Ancient Secrets of China’s Lost Pyramids” (on the show Ancient Secrets on the National Geographic Channel…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoytI2phjls), they tell the story of some of China’s emperors and their ostentatious tombs. These emperors believed that they needed to send many servants to the afterlife in order to have a good life there. So, due to their belief, they sacrificed many concubines, servants and soldiers to serve and protect the emperor in the afterlife (and other powerful/important people followed their example).
3) People spent enormous sums of money building tombs for powerful people to enjoy the afterlife instead of on real living people who needed it. The above documentary illustrates this problem as well. The emperors believed that they needed to send huge amounts of money to the afterlife as well in order to have a good life there. So, due to their belief, they spent the equivalent of billions of dollars on their mausoleums. The extravagance caused many people to rebel and resulted in the destruction of several dynasties. So this false belief ruined entire civilizations.
4) Belief that the soul never dies, means the wicked never die. That is the foundation for the extremely cruel belief in eternal hell that has caused millions to turn away from God.
HELL TRUTH
The Bible repeatedly states that the purpose of hell is to destroy the body and soul of all who reject God’s love and grace (Matt. 10:28), that the wicked will be burned into ashes (Malachi 4:1-3), die the 2nd permanent death in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14-15). When people twist death into endless consciousness, that is one of the most serious perversions of the term possible (Isaiah 5:20 strictly warns against changing the meaning of words). Dr. Weymouth, head master of Mill Hill School, and one of the finest Greek scholars, talks about this,
“My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language than when the five or six strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying ‘destroy,’ or ‘destruction,’ are explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is nothing to this.” quoted in “The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment” by Edward William Fudge, p. 214. https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=yc5MAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA214
The Bible does use the term forever a couple times in reference to hell. But in the Bible, forever can be used of something endless like “The Lord will reign forever and ever!” Exodus 15:18. But many times it refers to something that can have an end esp. at death or the end of an era, etc. For example, God tells Abraham that His descendants will possess the entire land of Canaan forever (Genesis 17:8). They did for some period of time. But when they rebelled, that possession came to an end and for long periods they were expelled or only possessed part of the land. The prophet Samuel tells the 1st king Saul that if he had obeyed God, his kingdom would have been established over Israel forever (1 Samuel 13:13). Clearly this means only until Saul dies, not that he would be king until the end of the world.
VIDEO: A Tale about Hell (short overview of why the biblical hell doctrine that people become ashes in hell, and do not burn eternally, is important)
https://www.helltruth.com/free-resources/video-library/id/1677/t/a-tale-about-hell
The idea of eternally burning hell does not come from the Bible, but from pagan Greek philosophy as this article shows.
https://www.helltruth.com/history/id/1854/t/plato-and-the-immortal-soul
This is an article about a woman who was so revolted at the concept of eternally burning hell that she left Christianity to becoe a witch.
https://www.helltruth.com/free-resources/article-library/id/1874/t/what-does-hell-say-about-god-
See more at the sites above or ones like:
www.jewishnotgreek.com
Miriam
Bryan Bissell thank you for all this information. I really appreciate you sharing
Bryan Bissell
Miriam Glad to share! I have learned much truth from many wise Christians and share as I have time…because Jesus said truth sets us free (John 8:32)! I still have much to learn from God myself!